Willow and Tara were walking along Revello Drive the following afternoon, making their way to the Summers house. The witches had been taking things slowly with their relationship since Tara had been released from hospital. Willow had been working on her control over magic and they had talked out different issues that they had surrounding Willow's use of magic. It was now perfectly clear to the women that Willow was naturally in tune with the forces of magic, whether she wanted to be or not. They had spent time since realising this and working on the redhead's control of the forces that surged through her veins. Now the witch was learning to live with her powers and not let dark forces take over her again. However, in spite of their reassurances that the power was now under control, Willow and Tara had found it hard to reintegrate themselves back into the Scoobies. Faith was the one out of the gang that was showing the most warmth and trying to convince the others to follow her example. Buffy was making an effort, following the example set by the other slayer, to work things out with her best friend. This afternoon saw them all meeting for lunch and trying to work through their demons together.
"Do you think this will go all right in here?" Willow asked Tara tentatively, "We've not exactly been close buddies since I tried to kill everyone. I know you love me and have forgiven me, but I doubt the others ever will do that fully." Her eyes dropped to the street, whereas they had been gazing into the eyes of her lover as they were walking along. She felt Tara softly stroke her arm and it reassured her beyond comprehension and also sparked another feeling within. The witches hadn't been intimate with each other since the day Tara had been shot and it was obvious to them that they were missing each other's touch. Their make-out sessions were becoming more and more intense as their pent up sexual frustration threatened to overtake their wariness. Even now, when the redhead met her girlfriend's gaze, the electricity passed between them and they could both sense what the other girl was wanting.
"I'm sure everything will go all right today, Willow," Tara replied confidently, "We've been through worse than this together, as have the rest of the gang. Everything will be all right." The two witches then hugged each other tightly before knocking on Buffy's door.
Faith and Buffy were getting ready in Buffy's room for the lunch they were about to have with their friends. A few weeks back had seen Buffy quit her job at the Double Meat Factory. This had happened the day after she had went to check her bank balance to see if her wages had went in for the previous fortnight's worth of shifts and the slayer had received the shock of her life. It would appear that by some miracle overnight, the Summers family had became 5 million dollars better off. Of course, Buffy had her suspicions on where this money had come from, which had been confirmed when she had called Angel in Los Angeles. She hadn't let onto Faith that she knew about the money just yet. She intended on letting the dark slayer know how much more meaningful her life had become since that fateful day when Faith had saved Tara's life. Tonight was the night that the slayers were having their date that they had agreed on a couple of weeks ago. The girls had agreed on doing their usual sweep of the cemeteries and then afterwards, they were planning on returning home for some dinner and a DVD. Nothing too hot and heavy yet, as the girls were just getting to know each other better and taking things slow. Now, Buffy was standing in front of her bedroom mirror and fixing her hair up into a stylish French plait. She never heard Faith finish in the bathroom down the hall nor see the brunette stand in the doorway, casting her eyes over the blonde at the mirror. Buffy was wearing a halter neck summer dress that showed off her back to its full potential. It was red in colour and came down to just below the knees and Faith wasn't complaining about its length one bit. She was imagining ripping it off the blonde's body at a future date and throwing it onto the floor, but she was quickly startled out of her thoughts when Buffy said something unexpectedly.
"You know, if you were wanting to perve over my body, Faith," she said softly, "all you had to do was ask and I would let you look at any part you wanted." As she said this, Buffy turned around slowly and made eye contact with the nervous brunette in the doorway. Then, she slowly walked over to Faith, making sure to be as agonisingly slow in her movements as possible. The dark slayer forced herself to remain as still as possible as Buffy approached her. She didn't want to spook the blonde in any way and was content to let her set the pace. Her self control momentarily went out of the window, though, as she suddenly felt the other slayer's lips on her own. The kiss was slow and tender, sending shockwaves through both girls due to the love that they were showing one another. Weeks of sexual tension and frustration threatened to overpower the self control that both girls were showing and Faith deepened the kiss passionately by sliding her tongue into the other girl's mouth. The answering moan let the brunette know that Buffy could feel the heat just as much as she could, but this also gave her reason to pull back before things got out of hand. They had only just started to explore their feelings for each other and the dark slayer had no desire to give Buffy another bad experience of intimacy to add to her back catalogue. So, she slowed the kiss down and then slowly pulled back, with her hands resting on Buffy's shoulders. As she opened her eyes, Faith found herself gazing into Buffy's loving brown ones.
"I've wanted to do that for a long time, F," Buffy whispered breathlessly, "I love you. I've always loved you." Faith blushed a deep shade of red at this shy admission from the older woman.
"I love you too, Buffy," Faith replied shyly, "I just never thought you could ever love me back. After Angel got me out of prison on parole, I wanted to make sure you were all right over here. I could sense your pain and hurt in my prison cell. When I got back to town and saw how Spike was using you, I wanted to hunt him down and make him pay for it. The final straw was when he tried to rape you, B. I had to finish him off for that, so I decapitated him. Then I saw Tara get shot by that bastard, Warren. I couldn't bear to think of Red all alone without her soulmate in life, so I did my best to save Blondie. Then I saw Red killing you in the Magic Shop and I couldn't stand by and do nothing. I'd give my life for you, Buffy." The slayers then held each other as close to each other as they possibly could, running their hands up and down each others backs. Neither of them had ever felt this happy and content in their lives. It was like finally coming home to both of them, finding somewhere that they truly belonged. They slowly ran their fingers over the contours of each others' face, determined to memorise the touch of each other for the rest of their lives. They were interrupted, however, by Dawn standing at the bedroom door waiting on them.
"It's about time you guys got together," she said in a slightly pompous way, "it's been a nightmare living under the same roof as you two and your sexual tension. Just so you both know, I knew you liked each other way before you guys did. It was so obvious back when you guys were in High School! I can't believe it took you guys so long to realise you were meant for each other, I mean, come on!"
"Go away, Daybreak," Faith replied, irritated a good bit, "before I lose my cool and kill you." Her voice lacked any real conviction as she said this, but had a fair share of humour in it.
"Yeah right, the big bad slayer," Dawn replied teasingly, "it's not like that when you're crying watching Beaches." The teenager ducked just in time to avoid a shoe that her sister had thrown at her. As well as Buffy, Dawn was wearing a summer dress. However, her outfit was longer than Buffy's and it was a sleeveless top design rather than a halter neck and was a bright yellow colour. Her hair was up in a simple pony tail and Faith was wearing a light blue summer dress, which made any attempts at being angry seem pretty poor. Her hair was left down as Faith usually preferred to have it, but she had gone over it with hair straighteners to give it some extra smoothness and shine.
"Go get the door, Dawn," Buffy warned, "or I won't let you stay at Janice's for the next month." This saw the teenager shut up and quickly disappear downstairs as the doorbell just went. The slayers looked at each other, revelling in their closeness and then they joined hands before going downstairs to greet their friends for lunch.
The rest of the afternoon went very well and uneventful for the Scooby Gang. Xander and Anya arrived at the house not long after Willow and Tara. They all spent the afternoon hanging out like they used to, only it was better with Faith around. A fun time was had by all, relaxing in the back garden in the warm sunshine. As they all relaxed in the back garden eating food and laughing and talking, Faith felt someone tap her on the shoulder and she looked up to see Willow standing beside her.
"Hey, um Faith, can we go inside and talk?" she asked the slayer nervously. Faith looked at the witch and nodded before standing and walking with the redhead towards the house. They made their way into the living room and sat down on the couch together.
"What's up, Red?" Faith asked, unsure as to why the other girl would want to talk to her on her own like this. The two of them had hardly ever been friends and although things had been better between the two women over the past month or so, Faith was still wary of Willow after almost being killed by the witch.
"I just really wanted to thank you, Faith," Willow replied shakily, "for saving Tara's life. I honestly don't know what I would've ended up doing if she had been dead. I was on the verge of killing my best friend as it was in the Magic Shop that night."
"Yeah, funny how it took me, a killer who you hated, to save you from yourself, isn't it Red?" Faith said, showing irritation, "your best friends chased you all over town, to try and reason with you. But you tried to kill every single one of them and it took me, someone you classed as an enemy, to stop you in your attempt at self destruction. I remember the days back in High School when you were jealous of my friendship with B, maybe cos back then, my love for her was terribly obvious to anyone that chose to look. You saw how Buffy and I understood each other and you were jealous. You wanted to be the one that made B happy, but she only ever saw you as a good friend." Willow was very much taken aback by Faith's tirade. The remarks that the slayer made were hitting a little too close to home for the witch to like.
"You don't know what you're talking about, Faith," Willow whispered nervously, "none of that's true." This really got the brunette's temper riled.
"That's bullshit, Willow, and you know it," Faith snapped, "you may have overcome your crush on B now, but back then, you wanted to be with her so badly. You've made me out to be so bad and evil over the years, looked down on me as if I was worth as much as the demons I kill. Then there was that night in the Magic Shop, when you humiliated me in front of B. Every night since then, I've had nightmares of the night Buffy stabbed me. I can still see her face even now, the utter hatred she had in her eyes for me. You made me relive the pain I felt that night, and not just the physical pain either. I don't regret saving Blondie or saving you, I just want you to know that it's gonna be a long time before me and you are anywhere close to being even. I've treated you better than the others over the past month or so cos I know what it's like to go to the dark side that far in yourself and come back from it. I know that every day now you'll be feeling guilty as hell for what you did and almost did. That's the price you'll have to pay for it, in the end it's your burden to carry. Just think, now you know how I've felt for so long and I've had no one to help me deal with it. Angel's been there, sure, he persuaded me to give myself up to the cops and he helped get me out on parole after a couple of years. But he has no idea of what I've gone through since waking up from that coma. None of you know what it's like to go through the emotional pain and guilt alone that you're now enduring with friends and your lover to help you with." Feeling that she had revealed too much, Faith turned and stormed upstairs, leaving Willow alone to think about what had just happened.
After her outburst at Willow, Faith had run upstairs and into Buffy's room. She sat on the blonde's bed and drew her legs up so she was hugging her knees tightly into herself. Staring at the wall straight ahead of her, the dark slayer willed herself not to cry. She knew that she had revealed a lot more information than she felt comfortable with, just as she had the night she had killed Kakistos. She remembered that night very well, had even consciously made an effort to keep it perfectly clear in her mind. It came back to her now, that night:
'"Faith, are you sure you're all right?" Buffy asked gently once she had walked the shaken brunette back to her motel room. The younger girl had been unusually quiet ever since she'd managed to stake the vampire with hooves in the warehouse. This had made the blonde concerned, as she knew Faith well enough to know that any period of long silence was bad coming from her.
"I'm five by five, B," Faith replied in a tone of false cheeriness, "another vampire dusted, right? The world can sleep a little easier, although they know shit about what goes on around them." She crawled onto her bed and sat with her legs up into herself, so she was hugging her knees tightly. She was secretly hoping that Buffy would leave the room before she gave into the painful urge to cry. Memories of what Kakistos had done to her watcher, how he had tried to kill her as well, how he had hunted her down were all flooding her mind. Faith never noticed when she had started crying, she only knew she was crying when she felt a pair of arms engulf her. She relaxed her body and clung to Buffy, sobbing heavily. The blonde cooed softly into her ear, gently rubbing her back until the tears stopped flowing.
"I know its rough, Faith," Buffy said gently, "I can't even begin to imagine what you went through before you came to Sunnydale. Just know that I'm here for you and I'll do my best to be here for you as much as possible." Faith managed a watery and grateful smile for the other girl and cuddled closely into her. The two girls stayed like that for the rest of the night, simply holding each other.'
Faith couldn't help but smile to herself as she remembered that night. Being that close to Buffy was like a dream come true for the brunette. It made her feel so safe and almost loved, being held like that by the girl that she had fallen head over heels for at first sight. Glancing around the room, Faith spotted a photograph sitting on Buffy's bedside cabinet. She moved from her hunched position and picked up the framed picture, gently running her fingers over it softly. It was a photograph of her and Buffy that had been taken back in the final year of High School, before Faith had became friends with the Mayor. In the picture, the girls were looking at each other, smiling lovingly at one another. It looked as though the girls didn't have a single care in the world and were content to be in the presence of another who could understand what their Chosen status meant for them in life. Faith couldn't help but wonder if things could've worked out differently for her and Buffy. She also wondered why Buffy would have such an intimate photograph sitting on her bedside table, when it had looked like the blonde hated the dark slayer in the past before the shooting incident that saw the slayers cross paths once more.
"Do you like that picture?" Buffy's soft voice made Faith jump off the bed and fall onto the floor. She got to her feet, rubbing her right knee and sat back on the bed.
"B, you really need to get a small bell or something," she replied, hissing at the sting coming from her knee, "I don't know how many more instances of you sneaking up on me I can handle." The blonde entered the room and sat down on the bed beside Faith. She gently took Faith's right leg in her hands and ran one of her hands gently over the bruised and slightly swollen knee. The reaction this caused in Faith was instantaneous. Tingles travelled up and down her body and her breathing gradually became uneven. She always knew that Buffy touching her would be the most amazing feeling she had ever known, but even then, Faith wasn't fully prepared for how the blonde's touch was affecting her. Buffy took her time massaging the bruised joint, enjoying every minute of watching her love get all hot and bothered.
"Well, F, perhaps I like getting you unexpectedly," Buffy replied in a very husky voice, "watching you lose your cool and become hot and bothered. Make you feel all good as well. I want to love you, Faith. Let me close to you." Faith threw her arms around the blonde and held onto her tightly, feeling arms encircle her as well. She inevitably let all of her defences drop and cried deeply into Buffy's shoulder, which also brought immense relief to the brunette.